Wednesday, November 09, 2016

Trump won because Americans know that this culture isn't working. American's know that the legal and social system we have set up in our country just isn't working. We've known it for a while. And in every election people are looking for drastic change. It has flip flopped back and forth every election recently; George Bush , Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama. Every few years we give up on giving the person who'll bring change a chance and want the opposite of what we've had. But we won't find what we are looking for in this next leader either. We will not find the one who can fix all the problems. We'll just find another side of the same coin.

The problem is, we will not find salvation in our government. We will not find it in our states. We will not find it in the judicial system. We will not find it in our police, our hospitals and doctors, or our schools. We will only find salvation when we search for God. And we will only find change when we invite true change into our own hearts through a relationship with the Living God.

The poor will only get fed when, we, the people in their community care as much about them as we do ourselves. The homeless will only find homes when hearts towards them are changed in their immediate surroundings and the people whom they live among step up to provide not only for their physical needs but for their mental and spiritual as well. The LEGAL immigrant will only find a new home, when we welcome them in as fellow image bearer's of the Creator, and strive to treat them as guests who deserve a chance and not burdens and outsiders. The overburdened medical system and cost of healthcare will only begin to find balance when we find spiritual balance and stop feeding our empty hearts with empty calories and quick fix drugs, and instead care for the temple we've been given to live in, our own bodies. And the not yet educated and lower income families will only find adequate education and affordable housing and food when we start helping them to find grace and peace in an educational and labor system that is run by people who's calling and mission is to take these people under their wing and nurture them to a better life out of pure love and devotion to the One who created them.

And where will these people who care as much about other's as themselves come from? Where can you find someone who will extend grace in the classroom and the workplace to someone who is not at as much of an advantage as others? Where will we find people who do not reach for comfort and relief from food and drugs but instead are content and healthy both spiritually and physically? Where will we find these people who are not afraid to welcome a "foreigner" into their midst but instead will spread out the welcome mat as if they are special guests?

You will only find this in people who imitate the love and mercy and grace that was demonstrated for us in the person of Jesus Christ. If there was any person who made an impact during a time when the system was "broken" it was Him. And did He come to run for office, or change the laws? To create more programs for the poor and needy, and legislate the solutions? No, He came and He served. He showed us how to fix the problem, by serving our fellow man and not seeking anything for personal gain.

And we will only find the strength and desire to serve our fellow man and live selfless lives as He did, if we invite him into our lives and give Him full reign.

So the reason I think Trump won? Once again we know the system isn't working and we need change. But the change we really need we will not find in the White House or on Capitol Hill. We will only find it in our hearts through the One who will wash us white as snow, and set up reign as the governor of our hearts! The change you are looking for America, can only be found IN you. And the person you need to choose to bring that change is your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

My kids are learning John 3:16 in our After School Klub and in homeschool this year. It is our overall theme. But I think that John 3:16 should never be memorized without John 3:17 attached. Do you know what John 3:17 says? I can quote both of them from memory. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him."

So the very act of love is defined and then it is immediately declared that there is no condemnation there. The person who knows love more intimately than anyone could ever know love, did not come to condemn us. He alone would have the right to stand in disapproval, sentence us to punishment and declare us unfit. He alone had the right do all of those things, and he did not. Not at that moment. When He came to show us love, he offered us salvation, the very opposite of condemnation. He offered life, forgiveness and pardon.

And then again and again he showed us how to stand among sinners. How to behave towards them. How to quietly stand firm in the truth, but show love. How to extend compassion and grace. How to NOT condemn.

On very few occasions did Jesus become angry and call people out on their behavior. Most of those times, it was after he had spelled out the truth for them and yet they still refused to believe.

You'll also notice that Jesus did not tell people to go and do whatever felt right. He did not tell them to do what feels good. He did not tell them "follow your heart." He did not tell them that you are free to sin and be selfish and live life on your own terms. These things are not love.

A day will come when the one who has the right to condemn will condemn, but until that day, everybody gets grace and mercy. Until that day, I think we should follow His example. We need to reexamine what love is.

Tuesday, November 01, 2016

This is my favorite word. Grace. Read Romans 5. Just read it. I LOVE it. The word Grace appears many times there.

I very very simply define it as a gift from God, that we did not earn but we receive freely.

It is my daughter's middle name. It is what I have declared as the banner over my life. God's grace is evident in every thing I can think of that is me, or Him in me.

I am reading selected sermons of Jonathan Edwards. He says in what I am reading tonight...

"1. Of the grace of God. It was of mere grace that God gave us his only begotten Son. The grace is great in proportion to the dignity and excellency of what is given: the gift was infinitely precious, because it was a person infinitely worthy, a person of infinite glory; and also because it was a person infinitely near and dear to God."

Grace can be measured in proportion to the value of what is given. There can be nothing of greater value to God, than the person of Jesus Christ, who is himself incarnate. That is a gift that is infinitely precious, infinitely worthy, infinite in glory. This One of infinite worth was freely given as a gift to us.

"The grace is great in proportion to the benefit we have given us in him: the benefit is doubly infinite, in that in him we have deliverance from an infinite, eternal misery; and do also receive eternal joy and glory."

Grace can be measured in proportion to the benefit we receive from the gift. Can you think of a benefit greater than deliverance from infinite eternal misery, to eternal life and joy in his glory and presence!? I can think of no greater benefit that exists on the earth or in the heavens. It can be called the great exchange: to exchange eternal misery for eternal joy, to exchange eternal condemnation for the presence of eternal glory, to exchange eternal darkness for eternal light. The exchange is immense in it's benefit to us.

"The grace in great according to the manner of giving, or in proportion to the humiliation and expense of the method and means by which way is made for our having the gift. He gave him to us dwelling amongst us; he gave him to us incarnate, or in our nature; he gave him to us in our nature, in the like infirmities in which we have it in our fallen state... He gave him to us in a low and afflicted state; and not only so, but he gave him to us slain, that he might be a feast for our souls."

Grace can be measured in the manner of giving. If a gift arrives wrapped up in beautiful boxes and bows, covered in glitter and decked in jewels, does it make the gift of more value? Yet, how much more astonishing that this gift of infinite value, and infinite benefit to us, is packed in humility and wrapped in suffering. The most powerful, most omnipotent, most glorious being in the universe wrapped himself in humanity, laid down his power and left his place of glory and walked among us. The giver of grace became the gift of grace in the form of himself. And the gift arrives with no obligation attached. All we must do is receive it.

God was under no obligation to give the gift. In fact he could have rejected us completely. We have done absolutely nothing to deserve it. Yet it is given to us freely. Given before we even asked for it or when there was nothing in us worthy of its gifting. (Ephesians 2:8, Romans 5:8)

How could one ever exhaust the wonder of this grace? If you are able to truly comprehend the value of Him who was given for us, the benefit that we receive in the gift, and the manner of his giving, how could you ever turn your gaze from his beauty or tire in seeking to worship and give glory to His name?

And last but not least, once the grace has been poured out on you, how could one not tell others of the gift of his wondrous grace? It is what I will do with ever fiber of my being until he chooses to finally bestow the gift of his infinite grace upon me in its fullest form. I need nothing else. I long for no other thing. Until the day I stand before him face to face, I will never tire of telling of his magnificent grace!

(Thanks to my new activity on Twitter, I am inspired to take up writing on my blog again. I can not for the life of me say what I want to say in 140 stinking characters! LOL)